


tis' the damn season

by sergiosbaby



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Separation, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29715438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergiosbaby/pseuds/sergiosbaby
Summary: What if Raquel and Sergio were the only ones that survived the second heist?-Inspired by Taylor Swift's "tis' the damn season"
Relationships: Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 3
Kudos: 51





	tis' the damn season

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again, my lovely readers!
> 
> Now you're probably thinking: Where in the world did this come from? Why is Meg posting a one-shot? What happened to A Tale of Two?
> 
> And the answer is: think of this small one-shot as a distraction! I've delayed updates on A Tale of Two due to some elements of the story that I want to change, and in order to make up for it, I decided to release this instead! It was initially just something I wrote during a bout of sadness on a Thursday night, but after reading through it fully, it made me realize that this is one of the many potential endings LCDP could use, and I'm not completely sure I'm ready for that.
> 
> Anyways, happy reading everyone! I hope you forgive me for writing about my favorite couple in this depressing way. Listening to Evermore at 1am really just has that effect on you.
> 
> twitter - sergiosaltman

_ if i wanted to know, who you were hanging with while i was gone i would've asked you _

_ it's the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass but i felt it when i passed you _

-

Raquel had given up.

There was a time where if you asked her how her life was going, she would've answered "It's going beautifully," and she would've  _ meant  _ it.

But as Sergio left their house to not-so-secretly visit the banda’s graves for the hundredth time, Raquel couldn't give that same answer anymore.

She woke up to a cold bed. Sometimes it was the nightmares, drenched in sweat from the memories of the heist that seemed to have damaged them all in a way that was too strong to stay temporary. Raquel had dealt with thousands of traumas in her entire lifetime, being a chief inspector to a wanted robber, but nothing could compare to what happened a little over six months ago.

_ Bodies. There were so many bodies. Some of her friends, some policemen, some innocent civilians. It wasn't meant to be like this, they should've gotten away unscathed, they should've survived- _

Fate had different plans. In some sick, twisted way, only Raquel and Sergio made it through the entire thing alive.

Two star-struck lovers, forever sentenced to a life of misery.

He stayed for Paula. She  _ knew  _ he did. Sergio had grown attached to the young girl, and wouldn't leave her now, not when she had become just as infatuated with him.

So they got a house. Her and Sergio slept on opposite sides of the bed. Not daring to touch each other, not even a  _ single  _ caress, in the fear that they would damage each other even more.

-

_ there's an ache in you, put there by the ache in me _

_ but if it's all the same to you, it's the same to me _

-

He blamed himself. Raquel knew that. You could see it in his eyes, each soul of the banda reflecting on her whenever they sat opposite each other on the dining table.

"Can you pass the salt?" Sergio says in a shaky voice.

"Of course." That was all the conversation he could handle at the moment. Seeing him in such a state made Raquel long to comfort him, give him that promise that  _ everything would be okay _ , if he would just let her heal him.

But he wanted to be punished. He wanted to atone for all his sins, and Raquel  _ let  _ him. Because in a way, she was paying for them too, the guilt piling on her with each passing day he sulked around.

_ We could survive this _ , she told herself.  _ You got through a heist together, you can get through anything. _

The ring sat on their bedside table as an everyday reminder of the life they went through all of this for. There were times Sergio himself picked up the pearl-encrusted ring, examined it, tossed curious glances at Raquel to see if she'd react to him holding such a meaningful object.

The ring meant nothing to her anymore.

In a way, she knew he felt the same.

-

_ so you could call it even _

_ you can call me babe for the weekend  _

_ tis the damn season, write this down _

_ i'm staying at my parents' house, and the road not taken looks real good now _

-

A year passes. Christmas snow blows through the breeze of the small mountain home the Marquina-Murillo family resided in. Raquel feels as if the season was quite fitting, especially after the year they'd had.

Was it possible for it to feel like winter in your own home? Because every day that passed, the more it felt like that theory could be proven.

Sergio barely slept anymore. His new method of coping was to walk in the absurdly late hours of the night, simply to stare at the infinite amount of nature that surrounded them. Raquel buried herself under the covers of their king-sized bed, trying to find some warmth in the face of this eternal winter that never seemed to end. She was tired, he was tired, and this family didn't need anymore tension than it currently had.

Raquel calls her mother. She knows it was prohibited, she knows it wasn't allowed, but she did it anyway. Sergio stares at her in silent fury as Spanish is whispered in hushed, hurried words, wishing Marivi a good night in who knows how many months. Once she put the phone down, the house was at a deadly silence. Paula was sound asleep, and Raquel didn't even need to look up to know he was angry.

"Do you want to die too?"

_ Pause. _

"Is that it? Because if you feel that calls prioritize over your need to live, please continue."

"Sergio, I needed-"

"No, you did not." His hands were pressed against the wooden table as she threw her arms up.

"What was I  _ supposed  _ to do!? We haven't been a real family since we escaped. Don't try to deny it. You cannot  _ blame  _ me for something that was necessary, because you haven't been enough of a dad to Paula to even warrant yourself as a member of this house."

Deadly silence plagued the room.

"So that's it? You just wanted me to leave all this time?"

“It doesn’t feel the way it used to, Sergio.  _ You  _ don’t feel the way it used to.”

All the strength it took for Raquel to say those few words, and yet almost no reaction was given from Sergio as he stared wordlessly into the wooden floor of what used to be  _ their  _ home.

They were a hollow shell of what they used to be.

“You can stay.” She suddenly said, surprised from her own ability to be able to form words at this moment. “Stay for Paula. Your priorities clearly have shifted.”

He didn’t even have the decency to say anything. The two were at a crossroads once more, but this time, Raquel might have to take the road that wasn’t his.

-

_ but it always leads to you, in my hometown _

-

Sergio packed his bags a week later.

The worst part, really, is that there was no goodbye. Nearly four years of love together, all thrown away by a heist that wasn’t even  _ planned _ . If you took a look at all that happened, Raquel couldn’t tell you how they had managed to get to this point.

She loved him. Even through all that, she  _ still  _ loved him.

But most of the time, love wasn’t enough.

Try as she might, Raquel couldn’t stay in the house. Everything reminded her of  _ him _ , from the origami paper stuffed inside the cabinets to the chess set that served as the centerpiece of their living room table. She lived and breathed Sergio Marquina, and that wasn’t healthy for someone who was trying to do the complete  _ opposite _ .

So she took a plunge, and booked two seats for Palawan.

Before she knew it, they were on a plane, everything Raquel and Paula needed tucked neatly into the suitcases above them. The young girl, still not knowing exactly where they were headed, turned to her mama with a confused expression.

“ _ Mama _ , where are we going?”   
  


Raquel met her daughter’s eyes and smiled. “Back home.”

Their small hut in Palawan was just the same as they had left it. Naturally, there was more dust and dirt due to the fact that it had been abandoned completely, but it was something Raquel could work with. Her goal was to make the home completely  _ theirs _ , and get rid of the man that was once so present in their lives.

_ Dammit _ , she already had to do this with one man. Did God really hate her so much that she had to do it with a second one?

The next few months passed smoothly. Paula enrolled in an international school 30 minutes away, under the disguise of a completely new name. Raquel, with all the money she could ever possibly need, decided to help out with the local businesses around the area. Teaching, helping around, doing whatever she could use as a distraction.

But she knew the simplicity of it wouldn’t last forever. Murillos  _ craved  _ adventure, new experiences.

In an impulse, rapid decision, she was suddenly on a flight to Spain. Paula was left with a neighbor in the meantime, a lovely couple who had no idea of her reputation outside their small island. If Sergio were here, he would probably scold her, saying that she was flying right back into the belly of the beast.

Frankly, Raquel stopped worrying about danger a long time ago.

At last, the cab stopped in front of Cafe Hanoi, where it had all begun. She smiled at the nostalgia the small coffee place brought to her brain, remembering all the times she would have a quick snack with Angel before a night shift, or the day she met Sergio, handing her his charger like a lovestruck fool.

She opened the door and went inside. The place hadn’t changed much either, still smelling like coffee beans while the baristas went out and about. Her head turned to the stool she was sitting at on the fateful day, and was semi-surprised to see a man sitting on it. 

Squinting her eyes to take a closer look, the world around her seemed to have stopped moving as she laser-focused on the man who’s back was turned to her. The shaggy brown hair, the black coat, the thickly-rimmed glasses she used to place on the bedside table every night-

It was  _ him _ .

Raquel would’ve laughed at the irony of it all if she wasn’t so shocked.

He turned his head to meet her, and everything she had been trying to suppress over the past few months were brought back in almost an instant, as if nothing had changed at all. He was still as handsome as ever, only his eyes showcased a different Sergio, the Sergio that she used to love.

All her roads lead back to him.

She should’ve known that by now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a kudos and your thoughts down below, I'd love to see them <3


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